SEOUL, Sept. 13 (Yonhap) — The head of the Russia’s Security Council has met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, a Russian news report said Friday.
A Russian delegation, led by Sergei Shoigu, secretary of Moscow’s Security Council, visited North Korea on Friday and was received by the North’s leader, the council said in a statement carried by Russian news agency Sputnik.
“As part of the ongoing strategic dialogue between our countries, a substantive exchange of views took place with Korean colleagues on a wide range of issues on the bilateral and international agenda,” the statement read.
It is not immediately known about other details of the trip by Shoigu, Russia’s former defense minister.
The visit came as North Korea and Russia have been bolstering military and other cooperation on the occasion of Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
North Korea’s Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin held summit talks in June in Pyongyang and signed a new partnership treaty that includes a mutual defense clause.
The National Intelligence Service, South Korea’s spy agency, said earlier in the day that it is closely monitoring the possibility of North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui visiting Russia.
This file photo, provided by Russia’s defense ministry and carried by EPA on Sept. 17, 2023, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (R) and Sergei Shoigu, then Russia’s defense minister (L), inspecting a military airfield in Russia’s Vladivostok the previous day. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
sooyeon@yna.co.kr
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